CNN Contributor Erickson and Family Targeted in Latest 'SWATing' Attack

Erik Erickson, editor-in-chief of RedState.com and a CNN political contributor, reports that he is the latest conservative to be "SWAT"ed.

www.breitbart.com

This tactic has previously been used on conservative blogger Patrick Frey aka Patterico, a California Deputy District Attorney, and Mike Stack, a New Jersey private citizen, both of whom were targeted by the left following the sex scandal which forced Anthony Weiner to resign from Congress.

Patterico's SWATer told 911 dispatchers that he (posing as the blogger) had shot his own wife, and police greeted him with drawn weapons, handcuffing him and waking his wife to frisk her as a police helicopter flew over their home.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Atlanta Cops Jailed For Killing 92 Year Old Great Grand Mother
SWATTERS: Scum of the earth!
Playing Xbox leads to SWAT raid

I didn't know what "SWATing" was, so I had to Look it up, even though it is kind of self-explanatory. Apparently it is currently being used to harass conservative bloggers?

Kind of scares me, because I had a scary call from an unknown number last week, and when I reversed searched the number it was the generic gmail number.

News Story from another incident.


www.breitbart.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

What an absolutely disgusting game these people are playing.

People are probably already dying as a result of this. And to use this as a political tool...

reply to post by projectvxn


Yep, this is VERY scary and disgusting. Imagine the hundreds of ways this could go wrong and someone end up dead. I suppose that is an acceptable outcome for the people instigating the prank though? They probably wouldn't mind if a conservative blogger ended up dead.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by projectvxn

 

Yep, this is VERY scary and disgusting. Imagine the hundreds of ways this could go wrong and someone end up dead. I suppose that is an acceptable outcome for the people instigating the prank though? They probably wouldn't mind if a conservative blogger ended up dead.

I am quite sure that is exactly the result they are hoping for. This should start escalating like wild now.

reply to post by groingrinder


The escalation part is scary also. Retaliation swating from left to right and then right to left with each 911 scenario getting more and more inciteful to get the police as riled up and trigger happy as possible.

At least it is a crime if they get caught, but it is pretty hard to get caught with all the anonymous wifi spots out there and the ease of creating a google account.

Reminds me of the story where the guy calls the police to report someone breaking into his shed and being told that there were no police available to respond.
He calls them back and tells them to send an ambulance because he shot the guy. Soon there were helicopters, swat teams and police in general swarming around his house.
The police catch the guy breaking into the shed, but then go to the homeowner and say you lied and said that you shot the guy, to which the caller replies that the dispatcher lied in the first place when they said no police were available to respond to his call for help.

Or the President who said he heard that some guy had WMD's, so he sent a bunch of guys to "arrest" him.

reply to post by getreadyalready


I agree this is very worrying imagine if you got in a conflict with a co worker. And they decided to try something like this.

And as far as i know you can't call 911 with gmail.

reply to post by Bixxi3


I don't know for sure. Some of those accounts said they called the "non-emergency line," but others didn't indicate and they read as if they called 911.

reply to post by getreadyalready


S&F This is an important topic that people need to know about. I had never heard of "swatting" until I read this thread & the Breitbart article (can't access the video from this thread).

Someone needs to do a Swatting thread. The title of this thread is too tame to get the attention it deserves. I realize there are rules for Breaking News titles which limit the OP.

Lots of malicious people out there.

Given the government's near God-like ability to monitor and trace internet and phone traffic there is no excuse for them not catching whoever is making these kinds of calls.
Which means someone like say, Eric Holder and InJustice Department are condoning and protecting those who use these methods to harass innocent people if indeed they are not the guilty parties themselves.
Add this to the stinking pile of Fast and Furious/NNPP debacles.

reply to post by getreadyalready


This is scary on so many levels...
One of the scariest aspects of this horrific new trend, it may not just be
amatuers doing the SWATing.

Put your tin foil hats on, and peer down the rabbit hole with me for a few minutes.

In the case of Patrick Frey of Patterico's Pontifications in California,
lets follow the money trail.

First, a little history on Patterico's SWATing:

www.youtube.com...

So, what had Patrick done that brought on the wrath to this extent?

He had blogged, exposing a man named Brett Kimberlain.
Brett Kimberlain was the infamous Speedway Bomber.

Yet, looking a little deeper into Kimberlains activities, we find that maybe he
is not your typical mad criminal, perhaps something much more sinister.

In obtaining the material for his bombs, he used :

a Department of Defense insignia, and the Presidential Seal, both of which were used to
procure the hard-to-come-by explosives used in the bombings

www.ibtimes.com...
Now maybe he was just some randomly criminally minded man, or maybe he was
something more.

Just a surface comparison of his crimes, as to say...the Oklamhoma City bombings leaves one
more curious, more questions than answers.

Backing up a bit from there, one could look at the Weather Underground, and find many
reasons to believe that Ayers was an undercover operative, and not just some anti government
hippie dude.

Remember, one side works for instability, and the other side works for stability.
Yes yes thats the old boys in the basement secret way of destabilizing, and reshaping.

Not unsimilar to what has happened in The Arab Spring. A cursory glance into the
funding behind much of the instability movements and one can usually find the same
players, many of whom we are familar with.

The shadow government is alive, well and kicking.

Connect the dots.

Unless these tactics are vigorously repudiated by the First Amendment's friends across the ideological spectrum, our Constitution will become little more than a parchment barrier to oppression.

The groups that Kimberlin has founded and associated with since his release from prison have received more than $1.5 million in grant support, much of it from liberal foundations -- the Tides Foundation, Streisand Foundation and Heinz Foundation -- according to Matthew Vadum of the Capital Research Center. Vadum wonders if they know (or care) how their donors' money is being spent.

washingtonexaminer.com...

Remember, its not left against right, its freedom vs. tyranny.

reply to post by AuranVector


I agree. I didn't do a more thorough thread on the whole SWATers issue, because I am new to it just like you.

Loam did make a thread, it is linked in the OP. SWATers: Scum of the Earth

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Given the government's near God-like ability to monitor and trace internet and phone traffic there is no excuse for them not catching whoever is making these kinds of calls.

Exactly.
Yet, watching the news reports...we are led to believe that
this is all just "bad pranks" and "we dont know how they are doing this"

reply to post by burntheships


Exactly. I bet if you did this and threatened the president they wouldn't have any problem finding you in a matter of minutes. It isn't a technology problem, it is a lack of attention, maybe lack of budget problem.

OR, maybe even worse!

Maybe they don't mind the fake calls, because it is a good excuse to get into someone's home and have a look around. I'm sure they can find something worthwhile in just about any house.

Plus, it serves as good training for those SWAT teams that don't get to practice their skills in real-life situations enough. In fact, it is the perfect scenario. They have a supposedly legitimate reason to storm a house of a harmless person. They get all the real-world training with none of the risk.

Wasn't it the conservatives of the last administration that fought and won the ability to kick in your door and wire tap your phone and electrify your genitals without warrants? Wasn't it the last administration that ushered in the police state?

I don't mean to sound heartless but conservatives brought us the DHS, TSA, Patriot Act, and most likely the grants used by the local police to buy the armor and weapons used in these raids. There lucky they didn't show up in there armored car.

There are plenty of swat raids every year that happen at the wrong address, people die, there pets are killed, property damage happens perhaps its time to re think the use of these types of raids. From 1980 to 1990 these types of raids were used around 3000 times but last year they were used 30,000 times, you tell me is this cool?

reply to post by burntheships

Outstanding post. Very interesting. Down the rabbit hole indeed... But it seems they are leaving a trail of money and paper.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by burntheships

 

Exactly. I bet if you did this and threatened the president they wouldn't have any problem finding you in a matter of minutes. It isn't a technology problem, it is a lack of attention, maybe lack of budget problem.

OR, maybe even worse!

Just maybe.

Thinking about the darling Anthony Weiner, husband of Huma Abedin, Hillary
Clintons quiet right hand woman....

Thinking about the dangerous ACORN and Code Pinks ties to the Arab Spring,
tied to the Tides Foundation.

Thinking about Syria...

The architectures of Tyranny prefer to remain in the shadows.

Any blogger — conservative and liberal alike — who has written the truth about Kimberlin has come under vicious attack by either Kimberlin or his minions, suffering death threats (veiled and unveiled), multiple lawsuits, loss of jobs and worse www.theblaze.com...

Kimberlin founded The Velvet Revolution, which supports the Occupy Movement,
also supported by Soros funded The Tides Foundation.

Originally posted by getreadyalready

Erik Erickson, editor-in-chief of RedState.com and a CNN political contributor, reports that he is the latest conservative to be "SWAT"ed.

www.breitbart.com

This tactic has previously been used on conservative blogger Patrick Frey aka Patterico, a California Deputy District Attorney, and Mike Stack, a New Jersey private citizen, both of whom were targeted by the left following the sex scandal which forced Anthony Weiner to resign from Congress.

Explain this BS to me, please.
Targeted by "the left?"
What the hell does that mean?
Who makes up the left?

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Given the government's near God-like ability to monitor and trace internet and phone traffic there is no excuse for them not catching whoever is making these kinds of calls.
Which means someone like say, Eric Holder and InJustice Department are condoning and protecting those who use these methods to harass innocent people if indeed they are not the guilty parties themselves.
Add this to the stinking pile of Fast and Furious/NNPP debacles.

OK, let's all take a deep breath and relax and come back down to earth for a moment.
You honestly believe with all the enemies any president has, especially Obama, Holder is sitting around planning attacks on bloggers?